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5 Common Running Injuries and How to Heal Them

From knee pain to stress fractures, know when to rest – and when to get help. By Anna Medaris Miller

Runner’s lingo

If you come across a group of runners on the street, in a coffee shop or on an online forum, chances are they’re discussing one of three things: hydration issues, running schedules or injuries, says Joe English, a multi-sport athlete and coach in Portland, Oregon. And, if the topic is injuries, chances are there’s little consensus on, say, how long the sufferer should rest, whether to soothe it with ice or a foam roller and which practitioner to see. “Running injuries are super common, but there’s a lot of different information out there about how you deal with them,” English says. Here, he and other experts set the record straight.

The best offense is a good defense.

Whether it’s a slight shin irritation or a full-blown stress fracture, most running-related injuries can be traced back to a few causes: poor planning, a poor warmup, poor form or pushing too hard, says Nathan DeMetz, an online personal trainer based in Goshen, Indiana. “People are driving their feet down rapidly into the ground, and that damage can start to add up really quickly,” he says. Working with professionals, be they running coaches, personal trainers, physical therapists or sports medicine doctors, can help keep injuries at bay. But if it’s already too late, read on to learn how to identify and cope with five common running-related injuries:

1. Runner’s knee

About 50 percent of running injuries are knee-related, estimates Robert Gillanders, a physical therapist in Bethesda, Maryland, and spokesperson for the American Physical Therapy Association. It’s easy to see why: The sport requires your knees to repetitively endure shock from the ground below and from body weight above the joint. If your gait’s a bit off, your training too accelerated or your shoes imperfectly fitted, that strain will add up – often to pain around the kneecap, aka runner’s knee. While rest is key, treatment may also include new shoes, dialed back mileage or quad-strengthening exercises. A sports medicine doc or physical therapist can help make the call.

2. IT band syndrome

Not all running-related knee pain is considered runner’s knee. If the outer, not front, of the joint is making you wince, it’s likely your IT band, a stretch of connective tissue that runs from your hip to your knee. “It’s almost like gristle that provides support for the outside of the knee,” Gillanders says. Running with IT band syndrome, which occurs more in women because wider hips ask more of the tissue, will only bring on pain earlier in runs. “There’s almost no way to get rid of it without resting it and getting ice on it and getting treatment,” English says. Foam rolling and expert-guided strength and balance work often help.

3. Achilles pain

Fifty percent of runners injure their Achilles tendons – the thick band of tissue joining the calf muscles with the heel – at some point during their careers, according to the American Physical Therapy Association. That’s partly because the band endures a lot of strain and doesn’t have a rich blood supply, which can prolong the healing cycle, Gillanders says. Men are particularly prone to Achilles injuries because they tend to have tighter calves than women. Like many running-related injuries, a good prevention and treatment technique for Achilles pain is flexibility work. “For every hour of running, you should really be doing an hour of a stretching-focused activity” like yoga, English says.

4. Plantar fasciitis

Sometimes, that same calf tightness can lead to shin splints or heel pain known as plantar fasciitis, which is most likely in runners who are heavier, have ramped up their routines too quickly and have flatter feet, among other risk factors, APTA reports. To treat heel pain, again, rest and professional help is key. Physical therapists may, for example, guide you in stretching exercises, prescribe icing and help you identify shoes or braces that can support your foot as it heals. Once you get back on your feet, you might try switching up your running surface to something softer, like a dirt path, grass or a track, English says.

5. Stress fractures

If you have a stress fracture and try to hop on the leg that hurts, your body won’t let you – it knows it will be too darn painful. “That’s when we take you out of a race,” English says. You can also identify the injury – essentially little cracks in the bone that can shatter – if one dime-sized spot, usually on the shin or under your foot, hurts to the touch. While one of the most serious running injuries, a stress fracture isn’t the only one that should send you to a sports medicine clinic. If you visit one, English says, “you’ll be back in business much faster than doing anything on your own.”

Physical therapy for spinal stenosis is as effective as surgery and should be fully considered as a first-choice treatment option, according to a new study that is the first to directly compare a single, evidence-based physical therapy regimen with decompression surgery among patients who agreed to be randomly assigned to either approach.

The study focused on self-reported physical function among 169 participants diagnosed with lumbar spinal stenosis (LSS) after 2 years, but it also tracked function measurements along the way–at baseline, 10 weeks, 6 months, and 12 months. Researchers found that not only were 2-year effects similar for the 2 groups (87 who began with surgery and 82 who started with physical therapy), the increase in function followed similar trajectories from baseline on.

Research was conducted between 2000 to 2007, and limited to patients 50 years and older who had no previous LSS surgery and had no additional conditions including dementia, vascular disease, metastatic cancer, or a recent history of heart attack.

The study, which appears in the Annals of Internal Medicine (abstract only available for free), was led by Anthony Delitto, PT, PhD, FAPTA, with coauthors includingSara R. Pilva, PT, PhD, FAAOMP, OCS, Julie M. Fritz, PT, PhD, FAPTA, andDeborah A. Josbeno, PT, PhD, NCS. The findings have been reported in Reuters, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Medpage Today, and other outlets.

According to an editorial that accompanies the article (sample available for free), what makes this research important is that it restricted the nonsurgical approach to a single physical therapy regimen, and that participants—all of whom were prequalified for surgery—consented to a randomized treatment approach. Previous studies focused on surgical vs (mostly unspecified) “nonsurgical” approaches, and some allowed patients to self-select their treatment groups.

Editorial author Jeffrey N. Katz, MD, MSc, writes that the current study more accurately represents practice, in which “clinicians and patients must choose between surgery and a particular nonoperative regimen, rather than an amalgam of regimens.”

Most participants in the physical therapy group attended at least 1 of the 12 prescribed sessions, with two-thirds participating in at least 6 sessions. However, over half (57%) of the physical therapy group elected to have surgery at some point within the 2-year study window. While authors write that this crossover presents “a challenge in interpretation,” additional analysis revealed that even with this shift, “any differences between the groups were not significant.”

“From a clinical standpoint, Delitto and colleagues’ trial suggests that a strategy of starting with an active, standardized [physical therapy] regimen results in similar outcomes to immediate decompressive surgery over the first several years,” writes Katz in his editorial. “Taken together, these data suggest that patients with LSS should be offered a rigorous, standardized [physical therapy] regimen. Those who do not improve and ultimately consider surgery should be informed that the benefits are likely to diminish over time.”

Both the study’s authors and Katz agree that health provider-patient communication is key.

“Patients and health care providers should engage in shared decision-making conversations that include full disclosure of evidence involving surgical and nonsurgical treatments for LSS,” authors write, with Katz’s editorial arguing that “because long-term outcomes are similar for both treatments yet short-term risks may differ, patient preferences should weigh heavily in the decision of whether to have surgery for LSS.”

Surgery, therapy both prove good for knee repair.

Associated Press

(Associated Press)

You might not want to rush into knee surgery. Physical therapy can be just as good for a common injury and at far less cost and risk, the most rigorous study to compare these treatments concludes.Therapy didn’t always help and some people wound up having surgery for the problem, called a torn meniscus. But those who stuck with therapy had improved as much six months and one year later as those who were given arthroscopic surgery right away, researchers found.”Both are very good choices. It would be quite reasonable to try physical therapy first because the chances are quite good that you’ll do quite well,” said one study leader, Dr. Jeffrey Katz, a joint specialist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School.He was to discuss the study Tuesday at an American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons conference in Chicago. Results were published online by the New England Journal of Medicine.A meniscus is one of the crescent-shaped cartilage discs that cushion the knee. About one-third of people over 50 have a tear in one, and arthritis makes this more likely. Usually the tear doesn’t cause symptoms but it can be painful.When that happens, it’s tough to tell if the pain is from the tear or the arthritis – or whether surgery is needed or will help. Nearly half a million knee surgeries for a torn meniscus are done each year in the U.S.The new federally funded study compared surgery with a less drastic option. Researchers at seven major universities and orthopedic surgery centers around the U.S. assigned 351 people with arthritis and meniscus tears to get either surgery or physical therapy. The therapy was nine sessions on average plus exercises to do at home, which experts say is key to success.After six months, both groups had similar rates of functional improvement. Pain scores also were similar.Thirty percent of patients assigned to physical therapy wound up having surgery before the six months was up, often because they felt therapy wasn’t helping them. Yet they ended up the same as those who got surgery right away, as well as the rest of the physical therapy group who stuck with it and avoided having an operation.”There are patients who would like to get better in a `fix me’ approach” and surgery may be best for them, said Elena Losina, another study leader from Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

However, an Australian preventive medicine expert contends that the study’s results should change practice. Therapy “is a reasonable first strategy, with surgery reserved for the minority who don’t have improvement,” Rachelle Buchbinder of Monash University in Melbourne wrote in a commentary in the medical journal.

As it is now, “millions of people are being exposed to potential risks associated with a treatment that may or may not offer specific benefit, and the costs are substantial,” she wrote.

Surgery costs about $5,000, compared with $1,000 to $2,000 for a typical course of physical therapy, Katz said.

One study participant – Bob O’Keefe, 68, of suburban Boston – was glad to avoid surgery for his meniscus injury three years ago.

“I felt better within two weeks” on physical therapy, he said. “My knee is virtually normal today” and he still does the recommended exercises several times a week.

Robert Dvorkin had both treatments for injuries on each knee several years apart. Dvorkin, 56, director of operations at the Coalition for the Homeless in New York City, had surgery followed by physical therapy for a tear in his right knee and said it was months before he felt no pain.

Then several years ago he hurt his left knee while exercising. “I had been doing some stretching and doing some push-ups and I just felt it go `pop.'” he recalls. “I was limping, it was extremely painful.”

An imaging test showed a less severe tear and a different surgeon recommended physical therapy. Dvorkin said it worked like a charm – he avoided surgery and recovered faster than from his first injury. The treatment involved two to three hour-long sessions a week, including strengthening exercises, balancing and massage. He said the sessions weren’t that painful and his knee felt better after each one.

“Within a month I was healed,” Dvorkin said. “I was completely back to normal.”

Rehabilitation Within A Day of Knee Replacement Pays Off.

Starting rehabilitation sooner following knee arthroplasty surgery could pay dividends – for both patients and hospitals. Commecing physical therapy within 24 hours of surgery can improve pain, range of motion and muscle strength as well as cut hospital stays, according to new research in the journal Clinical Rehabilitation, published by SAGE.

Mindful of the trend towards discharging patients from hospital more rapidly after surgery in recent years, physical therapy and public health researchers from Almeria, Malaga and Granada in Spain set out to investigate whether an early start to physical therapy would improve recovery from knee arthroplasty surgery. They compared patients who began treatment within 24 hours of surgery with those who began 48-72 hours after their operation in a random, controlled clinical trial. Each group comprised over 150 patients aged 50-75.

The post-operative treatment began with a series of leg exercises, breathing exercises, and tips on posture. By the second day walking short distances with walking aids was added, and in subsequent days this was built up towards adapting to daily life activities, such as beginning to climb stairs on day four.

On average, those beginning treatment earlier stayed in hospital two days less than the control group and had five fewer rehabilitation sessions before they were discharged. An early start also lead to less pain, a greater range of joint motion both in leg flexion and extension, improved muscle strength and higher scores in tests for gait and balance.

Health systems are currently subjected to strong economic pressures, and a cutting the length of hospital stays has become a priority. Other benefits of early mobilization after this surgery are fewer complications such as deep vein thrombosis, pulmonary embolism, chest infection, and urinary retention. With hospital-acquired infections such as MRSA also a serious concern, a shorter hospital stay might also lower the risk to patients of contracting this type of secondary infection.

“Orthopaedics, especially knee replacement surgery, is one area that may lend itself to accelerated discharge,” says author Adelaida Mª Castro Sánchez, from the University of Almeria. “We therefore postulated that early rehabilitation after total knee arthroplasty could accelerate the capacity of patients for daily life activities, and reduce their hospital stay.”

Osteoarthritis is estimated to affect around three quarters of over 65s in developed countries, and when it affects the knees it can be intensely painful, affecting the gait and leading to deformity. As a result, replacing the knee joint with a surgical implant has now become a routine, but major, surgical procedure.

Source: Medical News Today

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